Sept 29, 2009 - Juneau To Prince Rupert

Stopped by for one last look at Mendenhall Glacier en route from Juneau to the ferry terminal.  Boarded the MV Taku for our journey south to Prince Rupert.  One last spectacular view back to the glacier as we made our way out of the harbour at Juneau.
On the evening of the following day, a 4 hour layover in Ketchikan, our last stop before leaving Alaska; Jeanne and I decided to brave the miserable weather to take a trip into the town ...After walking the streets in a blowing gale, we were good and sopped through, stopped into Annabelle's Chowder House to dry out a bit, toasted the end of our Alaska trip over beers and nachos.

 

We arrived before sunrise next morning at the port of Prince Rupert.  Booked in to a wonderful little hostel, The Black Rooster Roadhouse.  Gave us a chance to get re-organized -  I worked on getting the bike reassembled, both of us packing up for our respective journeys.

  After 5 weeks exploring the wilds of Alaska, Jeanne and I would go our seperate ways from here: Jeanne heading south towards Tacoma to visit Scott and Heidi, then on to New Mexico and ultimately home to Tucson.  I would be taking the ferry from here across to Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, and resume my cycling tour down the Pacific Coast. 

We spent the last few days together exploring the town of Prince Rupert.  Hiking the Edge Trail through a coastal rain forest, discovering the many totem poles around the town, taking daily walks down to the small harbour known as Cow Bay,  playing Gin, and eating fish and chips every chance we got....  

Sept 25, 2009 - Whittier to Juneau

Experienced very heavy seas crossing the Gulf of Alaska in the MV Kennicott - 80 knot winds and 25 foot seas...lots of passengers hurrying around the boat looking for a restroom QUICK...As we try to sleep on the floor in the aft lounge, I watch Jeanne sliding back and forth with the pitch and roll of the vessel...the whole ship shuddering with each big wave. 

We make port in Juneau after a two day crossing. The town is situated at the northern end of Gastineau Channel, and backs up to steep, wooded slopes; Multi-colored houses spread up the slopes behind the waterfront. Exploring the town on foot, climbing up Gold Street to the simple wooden St. Nicolas Russian Orthodox Church - complete with the copper onion dome atop the belfry - and then to the Alaska State Capitol Building.

At Mendenhall Glacier, hiking along the lakeshore to Nugget Falls, out onto the flats below the cascade where it pours into the lake; View from here of the immense "cutting edge" of the Mendenhall Glacier, intense blues.the glacier cuts a wide path down to the lake; Kayakers paddling between the stray ice bergs floating in the lake.
 

Hiking Perserverance Trail, following the steep, narrow canyon of Gold Creek behind the town...On the hike in, we come upon a large black bear sow leading two cubs across the road.  Passing remains of many old mining camps and claims. The town of Juneau was founded here when prospectors discovered gold in the creek.  The trail traverses up the side of the canyon wall, then crosses the creek, continues back to a huge bowl, Silverbowl Basin.   - from here, lovely views of the surrounding high peaks.

Sept 23, 2009 - Turnagain Arm to Portage Valley to Whittier

Yesterday, a cold, wet, cloud-socked day in Anchorage - we spent most of the day at the Alaska Public Lands Information Center, checking out exhibits, books, and watching films on the Good Friday Earthquake of '68 and the brown bears of McNeill River Wildlife Sanctuary.  The Public Lands Information Centers are a fantastic resource for Alaska travellers...I highly recommend stopping in at the one in Anchorage.

Heading south this morning along the Seward Highway again, around Turnagain Arm....

The weather today spectacular, fresh snow sprinkled along the tops of the Chugach Range behind Anchorage, the snow line has moved down the mountainside overnight.  Glaciers rising up at the east end of Turnagain Arm. spotting bald eagles hanging in the treetops.....Views across the arm to the Kenai Mountains.

Stop at Beluga Point, hike to the top of the "whales back" rock jutting out into the arm...

We make our way up the Portage Valley, past Explorer Glacier, a crystal blue tongue hanging over the ledge at the bottom of the cirque.To the Begich-Boggs Visitors Center at Portage Lake, looking across to Burns Glacier...Portage Glacier has now receded back up the valley, the terminus no longer visible from the Visitors Center.

Through the 2-mile Whittier Tunnel to the scenic harbour of Whittier; A harbor seal greets as we walk out to the seawall. 

Evening, the ferry that will take us across the Gulf of Alaska to Juneau arrives.

Sept 18, 2009 - Moose Pass to Exit Glacier and to Seward, AK

Driving through thick mountain fog from Moose Pass, spectacular morning light effects with the fog lifting from the Resurrection River;

Past the markers showing the reach of the ice sheet down the valley, marking it's gradual recession over the last 200 years.

Hiking from the Visitors Center to the front edge of Exit Glacier, massive bedrock formations all around, recently exposed, graceful chiseled mounds and deep-cut ravines, the work of time and pressure and ice and grinding stone-on-stone, ice sheet as "sculptor"; A tremendous view down into the valley below and the "outwash plain" of the glacier, flat silt/gravel valley criss-crossed by wandering threads of meltwater. 

....Seward Highway south , the valley opening up into Resurrection Bay, and the town of Seward, beautiful situation on the west shore of the bay, with the cordillera running the length of the opposite shore, curtains of folded stone rise from just across the bay; A lone bald eagle sitting on an old piling in near our campsite; Sea otters appear and coast on their backs, then slither underwater again.

At the park in town, an historic marker at Mile 0 of the Iditarod Seward to Nome Trail. The Iditarod trail markers were traditionally fashioned from three long poles lashed together in a tripod, with one of the three poles left a few feet longer than the other two. The tripod would be positioned with the long pole end pointing the direction of the trail.  Spend the afternoon at the marvelous Alaskan Sealife Center.

Sept 14, 2009 - Kenai Peninsula - Soldotna to Homer

Check out the world record King Salmon (92 lbs) at the Soldotna Visitors Center - caught right here in the Kenai River, which is known for it's monster Kings.

Watch a native Alaskan cleaning his Coho ( silver ) salmon on the river walk along the Kenai River; carefully removing the roe sacks, to be cured and used for bait.
  Jeanne dreams of fresh fish today: "Wouldn't it be nice to get one a' those big ol' salmon to eat!"  (....in the trunk of her Buick is a fishing pole and tackle she has brought all the way from Georgia, but we have yet to try cast a line.) 

Driving southwest along the Cook Inlet, around Anchor Point to Homer.  The Homer spit hooks out into Kachemak Bay; Glaciers spill from the immense Harding Icefield and down the west-facing slopes of the Kenai Mountains across the bay;

 Stop in at the Salty Dawg Saloon on the spit, sample the local "traditional country ale"  of the Homer Brewing Co; Talking with a couple of the locals, who have been out on a halibut fishing charter, just stepped in to the Dawg for a coupla drinks.... "I gotta 110 poundza halibut in the trunka' my car...ya' want some?"....be crazy to turn down an offer like that! The menu at the Cook cabin the following evening features broiled halibut with lemon butter and roasted redskin potatoes....Jeanne is finally granted her wish for some fresh Alaskan catch!

 

Hired a water taxi to take us across Kachemak Bay to the Grewingk Glacier trailhead...the driver dumps us off on the beach...we follow the trail up and over a forested ridge and down to the shore of Grewingk Lake...looking across to the grey/blue fissured terminus of the glacier at the far end of the lake; Rays of sunlight spray through clouds to highlight the upper reaches of the massive ice sheet....ice bergs float in the lake. The Saddle Trail leads over another low ridge and descends steeply to Halibut Cove - a staircase leads down to the beach landing where our water taxi picks us up.

Sept 11, 2009 - Glenallen to Palmer

Camped last evening at Sourdough Creek crossing, on the Gulkana River. A hard shell of ice on the tent fly this morning...but the day warming, crystal skies overhead.  Heading south on the Richardson Highway, views of the Wrangell Mtns southeast; Mount Wrangell ( a sleeping volcano....), Mount Sanford and Mount Drum prominent. At Glenallen, we turn back to the west on the Glenn Highway.  Now flanked on the south by the ridge of the Chugach Range, Talkeetna Mountains to our north; Passing one glacial "tongue" after another, wide ice sheets oozing out of the Chugach and onto the plain;  Talzina Glacier, then Nelchina, over Eureka Summit to Glacier Point and "The Lion's Head", a volcanic remnant, prominent in the center of the valley;   Our first views of Matanuska Glacier, curving out of the Chugach and sweeping north alongside the highway. 

Below the snow line on the lower slopes of the Chugach, breathtaking fall colors showing; muted rust, ochre, sienna mixing with the intense chartruese, gold, and oranges of deciduous trees in the valley bottom. The hillsides look like crush velvet. 

Hiking the Edge Trail along the glacial "outwash plain" of Matanuska Glacier